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How Good Was Doug Martin?

April 2nd, 2014

When Doug Martin Twittered he was cleared officially Monday to begin practicing, one week before the Bucs hold their first OTA of the Lovie Smith era, Joe quickly remembered Martin’s 2013 season, a snapshot of the Bucs horror movie that the year turned out to be

First, there was the leaky, sleepy Rip Van Freeman saga, soon after, a MRSA outbreak. Then All-Pro guard Carl Nicks got the MRSA and was out for the year. It just got worse, and quickly, like an out of control snowball rolling downhill.

In retrospect, it sure seems like Martin had a rough year. Of course, with the offensive line playing subpar ball with a massive void left by Nicks, it sure didn’t help. But eye-RAH! Kaufman of the Tampa Tribune chooses to focus on Martin’s rookie season when Martin made the Pro Bowl.

IKaufmanTBO: Bucs RB Doug Martin says he’s been cleared to return after shoulder surgery. Martin had very few holes to run through before his injury … Easy to forget how special a 2012 rookie season Doug Martin turned in, when he ranked third in the NFL in total yards from scrimmage

Martin’s numbers were way down last year. Though playing in but six games in 2013, Martin’s yards-per-catch was down nearly 50 percent (three of those games, Rip Van Freeman was the quarterback and the other half was a raw rookie, so the downtrend is understandable).

Rushing? Martin was down a full yard-per-carry.

It is always interesting to see how superstar rookies rebound for their sophomore season after NFL teams have had a full offseason scheming to stop them.

Joe will be intrigued to see how Martin runs with a revamped offensive line. Was last year just a bad fluke, or have defensive coordinators figured him out?

23 Responses to “How Good Was Doug Martin?”

Can’t honestly say that Doug Martin is a great RB. He did flash some really good thing in 2012 but last year he was average at best. With the same line Mike James did find some running lanes and was more in Sync with the OL. Plus he wasn’t much of a threat in the passing game.

I hope he’ll get back to 2012 stats but i have doubts.. I like him and he’s way better than Rainey but I need to see more

The offensive scheme was just that. Offensive. Doug couldn’t run but he never let up. Thus guy runs hard and he will be a top 5 running back this season. He has an insane burst out of the back field and his vision is great. This year I bet he will put out better numbers than his rookie year.

Two things concern me about your topic. 1, Doug Martin has always run best when in a two man backfield which apparently we will use very little of this year and 2, Joe mentioned the “revamped line”.
But is it better? We have read all the hype from the media but remember these guys WERE ALLOWED TO LEAVE their previous team. Plus, everything that has been written says that the new guys are better pass blockers than run blockers. I still say we need to spend that first pick on either a guard (probably not one there at #7)
or a WR probably Evans as Sammy will almost assuredly be gone.

The running backs played great when Crabtree was in. As soon as he was healthy, the line was good. As soon as he got hurt again, the line sucked again. Dougie never got to run with Crabtree in there. I’m no coach or GM so I cant say it was Crabtree for a fact that lead to better blocking, but it is at least one hell of a coincidence.

The real issue is , Josh Freeman got exposed. Stop the run and Freeman could do nothing, he was all ways a “see a receiver open then throw it” rather than anticipate. with out play action, receivers could not get open.

Judging by the offensive linemen we picked up, we are going smaller. That usually means a zone blocking scheme. Doug Martin played in a one cut system in college and that best fits his skill set. It also fits Bobby Rainy skill set also. I think Dougie is poised to have his best season yet

@brandonbuc we don’t know if it’s better but it is certainly different. We will see much more movement from the offensive line in this system. Will it be better remains to be seen, but could it really get any worse? Lol

This is exactly why I said trade martin to a stupid team like the jags or browns for a first rounder then draft a rb in the middle rounds. If mike james can be as good as he was which was just as good as martin as a seventh rounder…than getting a first for martin would be a great move.

Sophomore jinx. Martin will be great again. Haven’t seen enough of James to warrant trading Martin. I do like James though and hope he comes back from his injury 100%. We’d have a pretty damn good running game.